Varilux Visionaries Facts Sheet
Bernard Maitenaz
Few, if any, have had a greater influence on modern optics than Bernard
Maitenaz. Born in Joinville, near Paris, in the 1920s, Maitenaz began his
career in the 1950s with Societe des Lunetiers, the French company that
would eventually become Essilor. The young mechanical engineer sought to
improve the design of bifocals, giving rise to the idea of the progressive lens.
In 1959, after seven years conducting research to design an ophthalmic lens
with a variable focus, Maitenaz, created Varilux, the world’s first
progressive lens. His invention innovated lens science to advance and set
new standards of performance for vision and vision care for presbyopic
patients. Maitenaz eventually went on to serve as chairman and chief
executive officer of Essilor from 1980 to 1991 and is today Honorary
Chairman of the corporation.
Raymond-Jules Cottet
Raymond-Jules Cottet served as director of Societe des Lunetiers. He was
instrumental in furthering the development of Varilux by rejuvenating the
enterprise that had been set in its ways. He recruited most of the young
commercial staff such as Serge Martin, invigorating the company’s
organization. When the results of the progressive lens were positive enough,
Cottet launched the commercialization of Varilux and invested in the
creation of several manufacturing machines.
Serge Legendre
Legendre joined Societe des Lunetiers in 1953 as a project designer and was
recruited to help Bernard Maitenaz with the improvement of the methods of
lens surfacing. He worked on the development of the manufacturing
machines, called D2-D3, for smoothing and polishing spherical lenses
destined for the battants factory. These machines were the first to replace
the old machines that had survived both Wars. The machines were
rejuvenated and improved to stimulate lens production with entirely new
technology and worked better and faster. More than fifty years and several
changes later, though technically much evolved, lens machines still function
on the principles defined by Maitenaz and Legendre.
Maurice Dufour
With the assistance of Serge Legendre who dictated the values
corresponding to each sweep, Maurice Dufour developed the pattern
according to the points defined on calculation sheets. The 4,000 points
required machining one by one. The milling operations took two days for
one pattern. They shifted and cut for hours and hours as would a digitallycontrolled machine today, with the telling difference that the entire operation
was executed by hand. Those codes would control the machines that
produced Varilux lenses.
Serge Martin
Serge joined the company in 1951. At the end of 1958, at the urgent request
of Raymond Jules Cottet, Serge Martin established a plan for the launch of
Varilux. The plan included a sales campaign for Varilux that focused on the
product’s “progressive nature” as its main feature.
Jacques Beasse
Jacques Beasse joined the Varilux team in the 1960s and was entrusted with
directing studies on eye movements and the physiology of vision in general.
Beasse and his collaborators analyzed movements of the eye and body and
sent reports to Maintenaz. His talent with a pencil allowed him to create
numerous plates explaining the features of Varilux and the interpretation of
images by the brain. These transparencies were used as detailed visual aids
to help Maitenaz explain the features and benefits of Varilux for the many
conferences he gave on Varilux.
Gerard Cottet
Son of Raymond-Jules Cottet, Gerard Cottet joined Societe de Lunetiers in
1960, after cutting his teeth in an investment bank and then in advertising.
He eventually went to England to manage the London branch, which
employed a dozen people. Cottet was instrumental in developing its
commercial network with Nylor frames, and above all helping launch the
new star product, Varilux.
Michael Gillet
Gillet joined Societe de Lunetiers in 1952 and participated in the first trials
of the progressive lenses in concert with opticians. He was put in charge of
launching the new product as a technical salesman. His efforts were
important as the team worked to build its initial customer base. Gillet
worked step-by-step, optician-by-optician and used each success as an
example to convince others. He answered opticians’ questions and even
called them himself, or would be on the road for support when informed by
salesmen of their problems.
Pierre Le Fahler
Peirre Le Fahler, surrounded by around ten people, directed the Multi Optics
subsidiary in Chicago beginning in 1975. He reinforced his team with a
majority of Americans who for the most part were optically trained, such as
Mike Daley.
Mike Daley
Mike Daley joined Essilor 1976, as a Varilux sales consultant. Pierre Le
Fahler sent Daley to France for an intensive training course in progressive
lenses. Upon his return, Daley was one of the original Varilux sales
consultants and was sent out on the road to sell Varilux. He was
instrumental in furthering Varilux’s success in the United States. His
theoretical practice allowed him to explain the characteristics of the product
in a way that optical professionals understood. In 1997, he was inducted into
the National Academy of Opticianry (NAO) Hall of Fame. He is a Fellow
with the NAO, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Ophthalmic
Dispensing Program.
Olivier Mathieux
A position previously held by Le Fahler Oliver Mathieux was appointed
director of the Multi Optics subsidiary 1979. Joining Essilor in 1977 as
commercial director for America, he had worked in Paris before being sent
to San Francisco. When he took over management of MOC, America
optical had just launched an important advertising campaign for the
introduction of its progressive lens, Ultravue. The initial Varilux patents
were now in public domain and most manufacturers developed their own
progressive lens.
Marc Alexandre
Marc Alexandre knew the U.S. to be a difficult market for new products. He
knew that the United States had tried to rally the big optical distributors
before because the American manufacturers dominated the market.
Alexandre contacted optometry schools and met with teachers. He offered
them ten pairs of Varilux they could give to their colleagues, friends,
students, for them to test the product, compare it to the bifocals and above
all discover it. When optical specialists saw the money that Essilor was
ready to spend to ensure the credibility of the progressive, they began to take
Varilux seriously. At the beginning of the eighties, Alexandre had
conceived a Varilux design for airline pilots. The Essilor lab developed a
unique progressive lens, with the usual progression in the lower zone and at
the top, a narrow area whose power corresponded to the distance of the
instruments the pilot read from above eye level in the cockpit. Developed
and tested with pilots of the Scandinavian company SAS, Varilux Pilot was
launched in 1984 and most presbyopic airline pilots adopted the lens. He
then got in touch with NASA astronauts and offered a specific lens for the
Space Shuttle. Unfortunately, this cooperation ended with the Challenger
disaster in January 1986.
Source: Essilor